Judge sends young mother to jail

On March 8, the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul told police to take a young African-American woman from his courtroom in handcuffs to start serving a six-month sentence. Rebecca Whitby, who has a 4-month-old daughter, was denied bail even though her attorney was preparing an appeal. She had been charged with assault after being beaten by several police who descended on her home in response to a call about a family dispute.

Setting aside the fact-finding role of the jury in her case, Gaul read a police report into the record and stated that “it would have been appropriate to have used deadly force to apprehend this defendant.” The jury had found Whitby not guilty on seven out of nine counts, showing they were skeptical of the statements of the cops and other prosecution witnesses.

Mitchell Sheehan, one of the officers allegedly injured by Whitby, read a statement, complete with tears, calling for Whitby to serve jail time supposedly so she would not hurt other officers in the future. Witnesses, however, said Sheehan had punched Whitby repeatedly in the face and other parts of her body, kicked her and Tased her.

The courtroom was packed with family members and supporters. But they had been told ahead of time not to react or the judge would increase the punishment against Whitby and her co-defendant, her mother — who is also named Rebecca Whitby. So a painful degree of restraint was exercised, and some actually left the courtroom, as Gaul proclaimed, “I am bringing my sense of social justice to this case. To suggest that she was abused by the police besmirches the memory of [civil rights leaders] Medgar Evers, John Lewis, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.”

Gaul declared that Whitby needed “punishment.” Her supporters say it was punishment for reporting that the police had used excessive force on her and for the nearly two years of rallies, websites and YouTube postings that Gaul mentioned several times.

Marva Patterson, the younger Whitby’s aunt, explained, “The harsh sentence is to make it harder for the family to sue the city of Cleveland. This is about the almighty dollar.”

Rebecca Whitby, the mother, was sentenced to two months’ probation and a six-month suspended sentence. She will fight to get a felony charge of obstruction of justice overturned on appeal.

Special chairs had been added to the courtroom so that it could also be packed with 20 police officers, all white. Whitby’s brother, Adam, commented, “It’s not justice when they’re working together.”

On March 17, a rally was held at Cleveland City Hall. Supporters signed a letter about the case to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, demanding Whitby’s release and the removal of Judge Gaul from the bench. They then marched to the jail where Whitby is held and rallied on three sides of the building. Prisoners waved from the windows and raised their fists in solidarity.